**First and last two paragraphs answers your question. The second is a rant about my intense hatred of Hunger Games obviously ripping off Battle Royale.**Read the manga first! Don't even bother with the anime unless you really enjoy them. I've very picky on which series I decide to download and keep for future reading, and this is probably my 3rd or 4th favorite out of the dozen or so I "own" (my first being Elfen Lied).

Now onto my unnecessary rant. Hunger Games (the book) was published in late 2008, approx. 8 years after the manga Battle Royale was published. There are a plethora of aspects of Battle Royale integrated into The Hunger Games that it should be considered copyright infringement and plagiarism. It's a blatant rip-off of the Japanese series and many manga fans and many others would agree. Why there hasn't been lawsuits is beyond me. To me, it's just like the Americanized version of The Ring (Ringu in Japanese), but without giving any credit to the original creators. Sure, the Hunger Games has better production values, special effects and actors, but that's not justification to steal the story and add a few changes. It's a shame more people don't know about this and the author(s) haven't face legal actions. When people do research for a novel like kids killing other kids (mostly making sure that their work is original, which is isn't), Battle Royale should have popped up fairly high on search engines. Although the author claimed to have known nothing about the Japanese series, I think that they're simply lying. Some people try to say Battle Royale is a knock-off of Lord of the Flies and anyone who has read that know that's untrue as the circumstances and almost every situation differs greatly.

Sorry about the rant. I know that's not what you were asking for, but Hunger Games doesn't hold a candle to the tragic and suspenseful manga that is Battle Royale. As a manga fan, you'll probable agree. Never read the sequel as I'd rather not chance ruining an entire series over a possibly over-the-top and/or crappy sequel that just may riding the coattails of the original. Definitely a great read if you're into survival.

Also, if you can't find the entire series somewhere (which is unlikely), I'll create an account on MediaFire and upload the entire series, so just message me. It's not reedited or HQ but it's not gonna be anything bad. Took me an entire day to find legit copies of each volume. Lot's of viruses out there.

________________-No longer do I quote great scholars, the famous, etc. Kids feigning wisdom ruined it.--I wont type a post like a college report. If you don't read it just for that reason, you don't have to post why your hoity-toity ass refused to. I swear, so many people on this site are so full of themselves. A lot seem to think they always have an "intelligent and/or logical" point or show signs of a superiority complex. They never admit they're wrong. Maybe partially, but excuses abound! :\-Stop mailing me about my comments. I don't read them./sigrant

I read the novel and it was amazing, probably one of my favorite books of all time. I only read parts of the manga that I wanted to see illustrated from the novel, and it seemed pretty good. I haven't tackled the movie yet... so I guess this whole post doesn't answer your original question much, and only serves to recommend the novel as well. I couldn't put it down, which meant a lot of my homework was neglected for a week. xD;